“Bottom line is our inability to stop the run, inability to stop the pass leads to this display on defense,” Dantonio said. “On the offensive side of the ball, you're going to run the football and protect the quarterback.”

For now, MSU sits at 2-4 overall, 0-3 in conference play and the team's hopes for salvaging a bowl game from this season are being doubted.

TAKEAWAYS

1. Spartans changes are almost there, but not quite

MSU made a few personnel changes at the start of the game, and things looked promising in the beginning. Redshirt-freshman Brian Lewerke was able to use his mobility to avoid negative plays and led a scoring drive his second time out.

Freshman Justin Layne, who converted from wide receiver to cornerback just two weeks ago took read Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thorson and took an interception back for a touchdown. Malik McDowell shifted to defensive end and generated more pressure than he has all season, winding up with 11 tackles, two for loss and a half sack.

“You've just got to keep playing, there’s no hoping, you've just got to keep playing hard,” wide receiver R.J. Shelton said in regards to his bobbling touchdown catch. “With that momentum that we had, everyone thought that it was going to turn around, and look what happened. It goes backwards. So you've got to keep playing through the tough times and the good times.”

It started out fine, but after awhile, Layne showed some youth in allowing a few critical third-down completions and failing to read where plays were headed. Offensive line changes mid-game led to more sacks and negative plays. The defensive line slowly resorted back to what the line has seen in the past two games, not getting enough pressure allowing Thorson more than enough time to make big plays.

MSU’s players and coaches have said how close they are to being the teams of the past for awhile now, but finally showed some glimpses this game. It’s up to them now to put it all together.

2. Lewerke, O’Connor show QB not the issue

Lewerke gave the MSU offense some life in two first-quarter scoring drives, but the second quarter saw MSU gain just three yards of total offense. He finished with throwing for 99 yards, a passing touchdown, and as far as rushing goes, Lewerke ran for 30 more yards, which wound up being tops on the team.

Fifth-year senior Tyler O’Connor replaced Lewerke after one offensive series in the first half and wound up throwing for 281 yards and tying a career-high with three touchdown passes. Both quarterbacks showed some presence in the pocket and ability to avoid pressure, particularly Lewerke.

As for a quarterback controversy, the Spartans have more of a competition. Both O’Connor and Lewerke will duke it out this week in practice to see who gets the starting job against Maryland next week.

“He (Lewerke) made the competition a lot tougher heading into the season then it needed to be, so I think our whole offensive team is pretty confident in Brian,” senior Josiah Price, who caught Lewerke’s touchdown pass, said. “Look at some of the balls he threw tonight, some of the plays he made happen. He was doing some good things in there.”

3. Secondary can’t afford to lose Nicholson

Once again, junior safety Montae Nicholson was the team’s leading tackler, totaling 13 and one tackle for loss against the Wildcats. He is MSU’s best tackler in space and laid some more bruising hits to the opposition.

Unfortunately for Nicholson, one of those hits landed him on the sideline with an injury. The injury and extent of it were not revealed after the game, but he did not return in the fourth when the injury happened.

The secondary was a big weak spot, allowing 281 passing yards and, just like the previous three games, conceded multiple third and long passes for first down yardage. Layne and sophomore cornerback Vayante Copeland missed tackles in space, and Copeland was eventually benched for redshirt-freshman Josh Butler.

“I’m used to seeing in the previous nine years when the first person gets there, even if he’s just hanging on, the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth guy is there like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam,” co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said. “And I am not seeing that right now. It’s usually not just the initial guy that’s there, it’s the next five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 hats that make you look like a good football team, a good tackling football team.”

Senior safety Demetrious Cox was continuously matched up on Northwestern receiver Austin Carr, who burned Cox on multiple occasions, twice for touchdowns including a dagger late in the fourth (on third and long) that sealed a Wildcat victory.

Overall, Northwestern was able to execute at will, something Tressel knows the team has to address.

“Honestly, a couple of those routes, our guys knew were coming,” Tressel said. “They were talking about it on the field but they (Northwestern) executed it and made plays. They could go to the corner route, where the inside receiver breaks to the sideline and just throw that up and get it completed pretty much whenever they wanted to, so we are going to have to figure out an answer to that.”

4. Special teams show glimpses, but still costly mistakes

Special teams started out the game well, as backup linebacker T.J. Harrell made an excellent play to keep a ball punted by Jake Hartbarger from falling in the end zone and pinned Northwestern at their own one-yard line. That resulted in a defensive stop, short field for MSU’s offense and the first touchdown of the game for MSU.

Senior kicker Michael Geiger connected and field goals from 41 and 36 yards in the game and Hartbarger had a punt of 62 yards. Backup receiver Edward Barksdale III blocked a punt that MSU recovered late in the game as well.

However, MSU failed to generate any explosion in the return game and gave up what Dantonio called the biggest play of the game, a 95-yard kickoff return touchdown right after MSU trimmed the Northwestern lead to just two points.

“Special teams wise, you know, the big play,” Dantonio said. “We had a big play by Tre Barksdale to block the punt there at the end.”

Improvement is needed in the coverage and return game, but other facets of the special teams looked improved, especially on the kicker/punter side of things.

GRADES AND GAME BALLS

MSU OFFENSE: B-

With a quarterback change, the receivers for MSU were generally able to get open and make plays. The running game and offensive line is still a problem, but as co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner said, the game turned into more of a throw-first style and that’s what the Spartans did. Any way you look at it, the offense put up 33 points, which is more than they have in recent weeks.

471 yards of total offense isn't too shabby, but only 51 yards of that coming on the ground is what separated Northwestern's offensive attack from the Spartans. 

Game Ball: Wide receiver R.J. Shelton (Seven catches, 190 yards, two touchdowns. 2-2 throwing for 44 yards. 70 kickoff return yards.)

Shelton once again was the deep threat that O’Connor went to, using good hand-eye coordination to reel in his first touchdown off a deflection and using breakaway speed to get his second touchdown of over 80 yards this season.

MSU DEFENSE: D+

Fifty-four points to a Northwestern team that was 112th in scoring offense is certainly a “surprise,” as Tressel put it. Northwestern was able to use a balanced attack to pick apart the MSU secondary and their blocking was good enough to get running back Justin Jackson in space where he is deadly, as the defense found out the hard way.

Overall, the defense gave up 490 yards, more than 200 yards for the Wildcats in both rushing and passing categories. Giving up that balanced attack is what allowed 54 points to go up on the board for the opposition.

Game Ball: Defensive tackle/end Malik McDowell (11 tackles (seven solo), two tackles for loss, half-sack)

McDowell looked more comfortable at the defensive end position, as he got a lot of pressure on Thorson and wound up getting to him once with the help of Butler. Look for McDowell to play more end with defensive tackle Raequan Williams back and defensive end Evan Jones not being able to generate enough pass rush.

MSU SPECIAL TEAMS: C

The kickers were good. The coverage gave up a play that flipped momentum upside down after the Spartans came back, and that just can’t happen if you want to win football games. That’s why the grade is a C, and might have been an A otherwise.

Game Ball: Punter Jake Hartbarger (Five punts, 46.2 average, long of 62, three downed inside 20-yard line)

Hartbarger did all he could to give Northwestern a long field to work with. Unfortunately, the Wildcats offense was able to make due and get points regardless of where he punted the ball. Special teams players like Harrell and safety Khari Willis get a shared kudos here for punt coverage.